ray is still on her back when she sees a figure walking towards them. the tall man wasn't wearing their usual white, red, or gold clothing and his hair was ━━ green? that caught elysia's eye the most, because green hair?
        not a daywalker.
        "hey! i'm zed, i was wondering you guys had a mechanic i could use, or ━━"
        without thinking she ran straight past nova, ray tumbling off her back and knowing two of their other recruits on the ground as they groaned. 
        "elles! that's not our formation," she calls, knowing it's barely any use, so she follows her. ray had his hand out ready for nova to take it and once she left, he nodded to himself, wiping it on his shoulder casually. 
         she could prove right now how good her takedowns could be.
         "a vampire." elysia rose her brow. "you're going to wish you were dead in the dark, mr." 
        the man blinked twice, appalled. 
        "vampire!" the daywalkers chanted as nova came to stand fiercely beside her sister. 
        "even has green hair, that's a first," elysia snickered, hand over her mouth to mock him. 
        without a word, nova punched him in the gut, the man ━━ zed ━━ cried out of pure agony and defeat, clutching his stomach as he rolled in the sand below them. 
        "okay, vampire. talk." nova spat, hands on her hips.
        "vampire? wha ━━ what? no, no ━━ i'm zed, i'm a zombie," he clarified, blinking in confusion. his voice was even cracking in distress.
        "how did you even get in here?" 
        "i don't know! i don't know, i was jus━━ i was driving and then ━━ what happened? oh! my z-band just went crazy and then all of a sudden i'm━━"
        "you're the guest of honour at the daywalker barbecue." ray spat, staring to fire his powers. elysia smiled. 
        "we really need to update our security!" she exclaimed before ray could take his hit. elysia began to join him, her hands tingling under the pressure before nova grabbed her arm. 
        "no, no, no!" the zed zombie guy screamed. 
        "guys, stand down, hold on!" she yelled over the hum of the orange lights of fire. elysia's eyes softened at her sister's words, nudging ray in the arm to just let it go ━━ for now.
        "commander. how do we know this thing isn't a vampire spy?" ray questioned, eyeing zed up and down. 
       elysia crossed her arms. "he's too chicken to be one."
        that had the man's head turned. "chicken, really?"
        elysia tilted her head, humming in compliance. 
         "nova, i hope you have a good reason this intruder was not immediately destroyed." her father declared, voice deep. elysia held her hands up. if she were the leader, the zombie dude would be buried in the sand right about now. 
        "can you please make it a really good reaso━━"
        "shh!" 
        "━━sorry."